City choirs make it a double with impressive haul of silverware

The city’s award-winning choirs made a clean sweep at the prestigious Oundle Festival of Music and Drama – bringing home an impressive collection of silverware.

Peterborough Male Voice Choir were delighted to win the Men’s Voices class and were awarded the Ray Sharpe Memorial Cup for the second consecutive year. They also won the Show Songs class for which they were awarded the Sir Richard Proby Cup.

Not to be outdone, Peterborough Voices won the Sacred Music class and were awarded the Lady Ethel Wickham Cup, coming in second to Peterborough Male Voice Choir by only one mark in the Show Songs class!

They were thrilled to be presented with the coveted Weekley & Warkton Rosebowl for the “most artistic choral item” of the day.

Both Peterborough Male Voice Choir and Peterborough Voices were pleased with their first public outings of some challenging and innovative new repertoire and were highly commended by the adjudicator for their performances.

Mark Currier, the choirs’ Chair of Trustees said: “We’ve had a great day, and while competing and winning is always important, it has been fantastic to see the camaraderie, mutual support and encouragement that exists between all our members, and between our men’s and women’s choirs; they’re really rooting for each other, and that’s what makes our organisation so special.”

“Competitions are an important part of what we do,” says the choirs’ director William Prideaux, “they allow us to see what we’re getting right and - equally as important – to see what we can do better, what we can achieve next. And while it’s always great to celebrate our successes, we will be back to work this week rehearsing for our next competitions in Cheltenham, and Wales, so watch this space…”

Peterborough Male Voice Choir have been invited to perform in the Festival 100 Concert celebrating the 100 th anniversary of the Oundle Festival of Music and Drama, which will take place at St Peter’s Church, Oundle, on Saturday, April 28.